With only minutes left before shooting has to wrap for the day on the set of “Polite Society,” Kansara taps her inner action star while strapped into a wire harness, completing a back flip off the wall so the director can get that one last shot.
It’s an impressive feat even before you factor in that Kansara had no prior experience with wire stunts before taking this job.
“It was really important to me that I could do as many of the stunts as possible,” Kansara said during a recent video call from London. “It was all new. I was learning the ropes as I was going through it, but it was such a fun challenge.”
In “Polite Socitey,” out Friday, Kansara plays Ria Khan, a British Pakistani teenager who dreams of being a professional stunt performer. So attempting her own stunts was not only a personal, professional challenge for Kansara, it was a way for her to connect with her character.
Stunts are “such a core part of Ria’s personality,” said Kansara. “It was such a really physical way of understanding her. … I was living her dream of being a stunt woman, essentially, and it was really interesting to understand why she would love this, why she would want to be this.”
(Parisa Taghizadeh / Focus Features)
Written and directed by “We Are Lady Parts” creator Nida Manzoor, “Polite Society,” which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January, is a coming-of-age action-comedy that mashes up high-flying martial arts, over-the-top teenage dramatics, unsettling social horror, extravagant Bollywood dance and more. At the center of the film is Ria, who refuses to believe that her older sister Lena (Ritu Arya) has given up her dreams of becoming an artist. When Lena becomes engaged to a man she just started dating, Ria, convinced something nefarious is afoot, becomes determined to stop the wedding.
“Polite Society” is “essentially this love story between the sisters through all the madness,” said Arya, who describes Lena as someone who is “very lost” at the start of the film.
“She’s in this place of not really having a purpose,” said Arya. “She goes on this journey … and by the end, it’s not that she’s really found her purpose, but she’s a little bit more OK with [not having one]. Sometimes things aren’t just resolved and that’s OK.”
Ria, on the other hand, is completely certain of her purpose: stunts with fury.
“She’s just such a spirited and wonderful and feisty but caring and loving human being,” said Kansara. “She’s incredibly flawed as well, because her drive and her passion and her zest for life is almost too much for some people sometimes.”
But she considers Ria’s tenacity and drive “incredibly special skills and qualities.”
“This kid doesn’t quit,” said Kansara. “I think a lot of young girls lack that self-belief because we’re not really taught to just go for stuff and never stop. Especially when it’s a bit rogue, like she wants to be a stunt woman and it’s not by any means a traditional career.”
Kansara originally auditioned for a much smaller role in “Polite Society,” a character “that comes in for a few scenes.” But within days, she received an email inviting her to meet with Manzoor and the film’s producers to read for Ria. She quickly landed the part.
“I cried for like three hours after I got the phone call that I got the part,” said Kansara.
Ria (Priya Kansara) is an aspiring stunt performer in “Polite Society.”
(Parisa Taghizadeh / Focus Features)
For Manzoor, casting Kansara came with a sense of relief. She knew “Polite Society” was impossible without an actor who could pull off comedy, teen angst, vulnerability, fight choreography, a dance number and more.
“On set I was thanking her, like, every day,” said Manzoor. “It was probably creepy. [But] I’d lived with this character in my brain for so long and she’s so annoying and then having an actor who’s so committed to the part and is so generous. … Part of myself felt really unburdened when I found my Ria.”
Among the ways Manzoor describes Kansara are “a gift,” “an utter joy,” “a badass,” “brilliant,” “the new Tom Cruise” and “a movie star.” The filmmaker explained that Kansara “just lifted everybody up on set” with a sense of gratitude and humility “that really grounded everyone and made everyone be better.”
“What Priya has is a kind of warmth,” said Manzoor. “A sort of inherent glow of loveability that the character needed, but it wasn’t always on the page. Priya has that as a human, so that just makes the audience love [Ria] even when she’s being hella weird or super intense.”
Though they didn’t meet until after they were cast, Arya said she and Kansara “clicked right away.”
“She’s such an easygoing, loving, beautiful energy,” said Arya. “She felt like my sister and she still does.”
The admiration and respect is mutual. Kansara only has effusive praise for Manzoor and her writing and the safe, joyous environment she fostered for the film. And it’s clear that Arya’s the “cool sister” in Kansara’s eyes as she recounts watching Arya perform with her band as well as some words of wisdom she’d imparted on set.
“Polite Society” marks Kansara’s first major film role. Until two years ago, she was juggling evening acting classing and auditions with a steady office day job. Having studied molecular biology at university, Kansara was working in communications for pharmaceutical companies.
It wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic upended the world that Kansara decided to quit her day job to pursue acting full time. Having always known she wanted to be an actor, she knew she would regret not taking this chance on herself.
“That was a huge timeframe in which we all really reconsidered what we wanted,” said Kansara. “When you’re sitting and the world feels like it’s ending, it’s [time to think about] ‘what do I want? If I only had a certain amount of time left, what would I be happy doing?’”
Ria (Priya Kansara) plans to stop her sister’s wedding in “Polite Society.”
(Parisa Taghizadeh / Focus Features)
Kansara grew up watching an eclectic mix of film and TV, including Bollywood and international cinema (thanks to her mother), action films (thanks to her father), animation and more. She also loved going to the theater.
Much as Ria reveals her future plans in the film, Kansara sat her parents and younger brother at the dining table one day and told them, “I’m going to quit my job and be an actor.”
“My parents were like, ‘Um, do you want to book a job first?’” said Kansara. “And I was like ‘No, I don’t need to do that.’”
The first gig Kansara landed was a small role in the second season of Netflix’s hit historical romance “Bridgerton.” She also appeared in Netflix’s short-lived fantasy series “The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself.”
But while her list of credits may still be short, Kansara’s experience on “Polite Society” has bulked up her skill set. Over the course of the production she learned how to fight, do wire stunts, scale walls and even dance. She also learned to push aside her “imposter syndrome” to make the most of the opportunity to hone her craft.
“I think there’s a huge amount of impostor syndrome that kind of like floods into us when we’re working any way, let alone to be doing it on this scale,” said Kansara. “But it’s not something that serves me. It’s not going to allow me to do my job better.”
Kansara admits that it was a scary to quit her job to pursue the unknown, especially since she knew she’d need to carve out a path on her own. But looking back, she thinks it was the best decision that she’s ever made.
“Perhaps at the time it would have been considered psychopathic because I hadn’t actually booked a job or had any credits,” said Kansara. “I was just diving into the deep end, hoping for the best, but it totally worked out so I’m glad I made that decision.”